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1.2 Research Purpose
Since most of the previous studies have primarily focuses on only providing analysis of Western non-profit and social organizations, this study contributes a new perspective by investigating social media adoption and use in the setting of a developing nation. Specifically, this research has investigated why NGOs and social enterprises in emergent nations are adopting social media while also simultaneously explaining how these communicative devices are being used.
This thesis uses a qualitative method, as this research is an ethnographic, explorative case study. Preliminary data consisting of observational field notes were collected during January-February 2017, and after submitting the research proposal, I returned to Cambodia in January-February 2018 to conduct interviews with staff members. The interviews were held with the
communications staff at PPSA and PPSE in order to answer why this NGO and social enterprise has decided to incorporate social media as a vital communications strategy. The coding for the interview questions were based on Nah and Saxton’s (2013) model which provided exemplary explanations for why NGOs adopted social media. Using Nah and Saxton’s (2012) model, members of PPSA and PPSE were asked questions along the notions of strategy, capacity, governance, and environment to see how these factors play a role in social media adoption. What was found was that these were not the only factors that influenced social media adoption and use.
Instead two other codes emerged, community engagement and organizational transparency.
Additionally, thematic content analysis was employed in order to provide a deeper context of social media use. The platforms analyzed were Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, because all three of these platforms are used by PPSA and PPSE. Using the coding presented in Lovejoy and Saxton’s (2012) research, this study explains how PPSA disseminates information,
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makes calls for action, and how they engage with their community on their social media platforms. No other codes emerged during this analysis, however I found that community engagement was higher than in Lovejoy and Saxton’s study, and the organization intends to incorporate more community engagement posts in their future strategy. Also Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) only analyzed Twitter, so my study shows how Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are used differently.
Finally, I analyzed the social media for particular themes, and found that intangible heritage and the personal narratives of the community members were the key focus of PPSA’s content. For PPSE they are focused primarily on selling the circus tickets, however there were still many posts that gave information about Cambodia’s history and the personal stories of the artists. I was also able to interview the founders of PPSA who were refugees during the Khmer Rogue. By talking with them, I was able to understand more deeply what the arts mean to Cambodian people and how they feel about the world being exposed to Cambodian arts via social media channels.
The results of this study provide an in depth, descriptive analysis and anthropological interpretation of how the Cambodian educational NGO, Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA) and their partner organization Phare Performing Creative Enterprise (PPSE) use social media. This study provides a unique and original contribution to the literature on NGO adoption and use of social media, because Cambodia has a unique political environment as well as social media behaviors that are worth examination. Thus, a model of reference will be provided so other researchers can observe how social media is used in emergent nations.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
In this chapter, the variables and key terms are defined to provide context for this
research study. The sections in this chapter are presented in a systematic order to provide a frame of reference for the researcher’s questions. The first sections introduce the definitions of an NGO (2.1) and a social enterprise (2.2) because Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA) is an NGO and their partner organization Phare Performing Social Enterprise (PPSE) is a social enterprise. It is important to distinguish the two, because though they have similar initiatives, their business models are different, which could in turn affect the social media strategy.
Next the literature introduces important and relevant aspects of Cambodia such as their history (2.3) particularly discussing the reign of the Khmer Rouge. This is important, because during this time, many of the artists and educated people were brutally murdered, and much of Cambodian’s arts and temples were destroyed. PPSA and PPSE are organizations that celebrate the arts, so it is important to understand the history in order to decipher the value of their missions. After the history is introduced, I discuss Cambodian tourism (2.4), because recently Cambodia has seen a huge boom in international visitors. Though this is great for the economy, tourism comes with some threats such as environmental damages, exploitation of citizens, and the destruction of historical sites. Therefore many NGOs and social enterprises, especially in Cambodia, have taken the responsibility to include sustainable initiatives in their missions. PPSA and PPSE do this by sustaining intangible heritages such as Apsara dance, shadow puppet
making, and the circus while also promoting themselves as a sustainable tourist destination.
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Therefore, sustainability (2.5) is introduced focusing first on sustainability as an umbrella concept, then giving further depictions by defining cultural sustainability (2.5.1), social sustainability (2.5.2) and sustainable tourism (2.5.3). Next, the concept of intangible heritage (2.6) is introduced. Sustainability and intangible heritage are the theoretical lens for the thematic analysis of the social media content.
Finally social media (2.7) is defined concluding with NGO adoption and use of social media (2.8) following. In this section the models for the research method are introduced along with the accompanying research questions.
2.1 Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO)
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), also know as nonprofit organizations, serve to address social and political issues independently from governmental organizations. Some of the functions of NGOs are to present concerns of the citizens to the government, to advocate for particular policies, to protect human rights and the environment, help implement international agreements, encourage citizens to participate in political activities and discussion, and promote and preserve cultural affairs. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the
proliferation of NGOs in developing countries (Burger et al., 2015). Internationally, NGOs are mostly recognized for their roles in “delivering developmental services or implementing developmental activities, at the ground level in many poor countries (Burger et al., 2015).”
The way in which an NGO is managed is crucial, because “the ability to act in
accordance with their mission, utilize resources efficiently, and balance the interests of external stakeholders and internal constituencies… have implications for its general organizational effectiveness, vitality, and dynamism (Getachew, 2014, pp. 25).” In order for an NGO to be successful and effective, it needs to concentrate on components such as the “characteristics of an
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organization’s internal systems, structure, work, and working culture (Getachew, 2014, pp. 25).”
The reason an organization’s values, mission statements, and visions are important is because they aid in driving the actions of those involved to work towards the achievement of a common known goal. Furthermore, having a common goal helps the NGO distinguish a unique image and identity. (Getachaw, 2014).
2.1.1 Phare Ponleu Selpak
Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA) is an NGO whose mission is to improve the lives of Cambodian children and young adults by providing access to arts education and social support.
PPSA’s mission statement states: “Phare Ponleu Selpak is dedicated to providing a nurturing and creative environment where young people can access quality arts training, education, and social support (Phare Ponleu Selpak, n.d.).” In today’s society Battambang is increasingly becoming more recognizable on the tourist trail, but the city still struggles with many social problems such as school dropouts, domestic violence, drug abuse, illegal migrations to Thailand, exploitation, abuse, and extreme poverty. Therefore PPPSA “takes a holistic approach to solving social problems through the arts, education, and social work (Phare Ponleu Selpak, n.d.).”
PPSA was founded in 1994 by nine refugees and a French social worker who knew each other from being stationed in the Site II Refugee Camp along the Thai and Cambodian border.
While living in the refugee camp, these nine refugees found reassurance and consolation from the terrors of war by participating in drawing classes offered by Veronique Decrop, the French humanitarian worker. Before returning to Battambang Cambodia, the refugees taking these drawing classes, believed that using art therapy would be an excellent solution in rebuilding their war-torn city (Phare Ponleu Selpak, n.d.).
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In 1992 the group of refugees returned to Battambang, Cambodia where conflicts from the Khmer Rouge were still left unresolved. Though much of Cambodia was in the process of rebuilding, Battambang was in the center of guerilla warfare between the Vietnamese Regime and the Khmer Rouge. When the Vietnamese took hold of Phnom Penh in 1979, many of the Khmer Rouge leaders and soldiers “fled westward to the mountainous terrain of Koh Kong Province and the dense juggles of the Battambang province (Chen, 2016).” During the time period between 1980-1996, the Khmer Rouge continued fighting the Vietnamese occupation through guerilla warfare. In 1996 a deal was orchestrated where “Pailin province a small area of land carved out of Battambang was promised to the Khmer Rouge leadership in exchange for reintegrating their supporters and fighters into the government (Chen, 2016). It was not until 1998, when Pol Pot died, that the Civil war was officially over in Cambodia, and in 1999 it was established that the Khmer Rouge was obsolete (Leitsinger, 2010). Therefore, the refugees came home finding many orphaned children still suffering from the traumas and abuses of war (Phare Ponleu Selpak, n.d.).
The group of refugees and Decrop immediately got to work building an art school, Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPSA) that offered drawing classes for free to any child in the Battambang province. Two years later, in 1996, PPSA incorporated music classes to the curriculum, and then in 1998 the circus program was established. PPSA has continued to grow to later incorporate the kindergarten, a library, and social support programs (Phare Ponleu Selpak, n.d.).
2.2 The Social Enterprise
A social enterprise is “a management practice that integrates principles of private enterprise with social sector goals and objectives (Fernando, 2017).” Broadly speaking, social
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enterprises are based on a “premise of frame-breaking and innovation in the social sector (Dart, 2004, pp. 413).” What this means is that though the intention is to make a profit like a traditional business, the ultimate goal is social change (Dees, 1998; Pedro & McLean, 2006). Generally businesses aim to generate wealth, however social enterprises distribute the profits to
shareholders (Peattie & Morley, 2008), or the funds are used to solve some sort of social crisis (Dacin et al., 2010; Dahles et al., 2010; Martin & Osberg, 2007).
Social enterprises are responsible for adopting a social mission that is sustainable and does not only have private value. In order to fulfill this mission, the organization should work relentlessly on pursuing new opportunities to fulfill that mission, and to do so they must engage in a process of continuous innovation, learning, and adapting strategies. Social enterprises have a high level of accountability to the constituencies served and the outcomes that occur (Dart, 2004).
2.2.1 Phare Performing Social Enterprise
In 2013 PPSA aimed to become financially self-sufficient and sustainable, so they created the Phare Performing Social Enterprise (PPSE) with three missions. The first was to create meaningful employment opportunities for Cambodian artists. The second was to develop a financially sustainable social business that provided a reliable income stream to PPSA. Finally, the third goal was to revitalize the arts sector in Cambodia that was destroyed during the war era.
The third goal was also established in order for Cambodian art to be available to those locally and around the globe (Phare, the Cambodian Circus, n.d.). There are three organizations that fall under the Phare Performing Social Enterprise and they are Phare, The Cambodian Circus, Phare Productions International, and Phare Creative Studio (Phare, the Cambodian Circus, n.d.).
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Phare Productions International customizes private events, international performances, and tours across Asia, Europe, and the United States. So far they have coordinated for PPSA artists and the circus performers to attend the Korean Ansan Street Arts Festival 2016, the
“Khmer Metal” USA tour, and “Galaxy Khmer” located at the HAU theater in Berlin, Germany in January 2014 (Phare, the Cambodian Circus, n.d.).
The Phare Creative studio was launched recently at the end of 2016. The studio creates 2d animation, graphic design, and illustrations. They are also involved with producing
professional videos and recording services. For this program, the students are graduates from the VAAS school at the Battambang campus. The complete business model and relationship
between PPSA and PPSE is demonstrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. PPSA and PPSE business model
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2.3 Cambodia’s History: The Khmer Rouge Regime
Since PPSA is an arts education program, it is important to understand the historical and political background of Cambodia’s recent past in order to grasp PPSA’s mission. According to Duggan (1996, pp. 363), “Formal education in Cambodia is constrained to the independence period (1953-1973) and the post Pol Pot period (1979-1995).” Cambodian education used to be mostly restricted to royalty and the upper class, so most Cambodian people spent their time in agricultural production or defending its borders against the Thai and Vietnamese. In 1953 Cambodians began to have a strong national interest in developing a higher educational system, so when Cambodia was granted independence from the French in 1953, Prince Norodom Sihanouk began to vigorously promote a national interest in higher education. In the early part of the 1960’s, the Cambodian government began a “rapid expansion in the provision of
education and an equally rapid escalation in the levels of education offered (Duggan, 1996, pp.
363-364).”
Unfortunately, the education system developed by Sihanouk was more beneficial and biased towards those living in the major cities. Therefore, those in the rural regions of Cambodia did not benefit from the prince’s selective expansion strategies. As a result, the newly built universities caused a wider divide between the urban elites and the impoverished rural citizens.
(Duggan, 1996). This educational divide led citizens to resent the powerful elite, which made them more susceptible to the antiestablishment and anti-elite messages promoted by the Khmer Rouge.
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The tensions in Cambodia increased further as the USA went to war with Vietnam.
Throughout the 1970’s the United Stated began to lose control of the Vietnam war which in turn coincided with the rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The socioeconomic achievements that were gained from Sihanouk’s newly developed education systems were lost by the 1960’s. In 1972 the Vietnam war was nearing its end, while civil war and aerial bombardment were plaguing Cambodia and damaging all facets of Khmer life, especially the newfound education systems (Dugan 1996).
From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge hostilely and violently destroyed as much of the institutional infrastructure as possible, with members of higher education as a primary target.
Many professors, artists, higher education students, monks, and social elites were mass murdered or fled the country. According to Duggan (1996):
It is estimated that between 75-80% of Cambodia’s teachers and higher education students fled or died . . . A less well-known outcome was the loss of some 67% of primary and secondary students during the same time period. The United Nations Transitional Army in Cambodia (UNTAC) assessed that by 1970 there were no more than 300 qualified persons from all disciplines left in the country and all educational books, equipment, and facilities had been destroyed (pp. 365)
The Khmer Rouge left scars, which are still apparent as Cambodia still struggles to rebuild their infrastructure and economy today. According to the World Bank Organization (2017) Health and education are still at the forefront of development initiatives and are major priorities for Cambodia. The World Bank (2017) estimated that 33% (about half a million) of children under the age of five have impaired growth and development. Fortunately net
enrollment in primary education has increased to 97% in 2016 from 82% in 1997. Though more children are attending primary school, completion rates are still at a mere 43% which are
significantly below average compared to other lower middle-income countries. Furthermore,
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79% of Cambodian’s population (12.3 million people) do not have access to piped water supplies and 58% (9.3 million people) do not have adequate access to improved sanitation.
Though Cambodia has made significant strides in the past two decades there is still progress to be made, particularly in rural communities. Fortunately, Cambodia is currently experiencing economic growth mostly due to tourism and garment exports (The World Bank, 2017). Therefore, it is essential that NGOs focus their efforts on sustainable tourism so Cambodian are protected and can thrive in the future.
2.4 Tourism in Cambodia
One of the benefits of the tourism industry is that it can actually help promote peace and stability in developing counties. This is done by helping these developing communities create the proper infrastructure for jobs, generating income, diversifying the economy, protecting the environment, and promoting cross-cultural awareness (Honey & Gilpin, 2009). Tourism has the capacity to increase peace, safety, and security, which in turn aids in fostering better cross-cultural relations and interactions to help alleviate negative stereotypes and advocate benevolence among citizens of different nations (UNESCO, n.d.).
According to the World Bank Organization (2017) report, the population in Cambodia is 15.58 million people with a GDP at $18.05billion as of 2015 records. The GDP growth is 7%
with 3% inflation (see Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Cambodia at a Glance according to the World Bank Organization (2017).
Cambodia has seen a steady increase in international tourism since 2004. From 2004-2016, there has been an increase in international arrivals and tourism receipts every year with large booms between 2004-2007 and 2010-2013 (Tourism Cambodia, n.d.). As seen in Figure 3, 5,011,712 international tourists visited Cambodia in 2016, which is up 5% from 2015.
Figure 3. January 2017 Executive Summary Report of Tourism Highlight Statistics (TourismCambodia.org)
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Figure 3 also indicates that tourist expenditures in 2016 were 3.2 billion dollars, which is up 200 million from 2015 (Tourism Cambodia, n.d.). For 2017, Prime Minister Hun Sen is projecting an increase to 5.4 million international tourists (Ngamsangchaikit, 2017).
As of April 2017, in the first quarter of the year there were 682,480 international arrivals to Siem Reap, 455,675 to Phnom Penh, and 27,046 to Sihanoukville. There were also an
additional 670,478 land arrivals and 80,142 waterway arrivals, totaling in 1,915,821 visitors just in the first quarter of 2017 (Tourism Cambodia, n.d.).
An article was published from Sky Scanner Ltd (2016) indicating the top cities to visit in Cambodia. First on the list was Phnom Phenh, Cambodia’s capital where visitors can see the Royal Palace as well as the Silver Pagoda. Just outside of Phnom Penh are the killing fields where it is estimated that over one million people were executed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Though it is a sobering site, many people visit to hear the tales of the people and to better understand Cambodia’s violent past. Siem Reap and Angkor also make the list due to the
popularity of the Angkor Wat temple complex. Siem Reap is also famous for the Phare Circus, Pub Street, and floating village tours. Sihanoukville is next on the list as it is a popular beach town with lots of bars and resorts. If visitors want to hit up some islands, Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem are also ideal beach spots. Finally, Kampot is a charming riverside town that is popular for the Epic Arts Café, a social enterprise employing disabled people who also give outstanding dance performances (McGloin, 2016).
Though there are many incredible places to visit in Cambodia, when most people visit Cambodia, they visit Siem Reap to see the Angkor Wat Temple Complex, the largest religious complex in the world. Angkor Wat is a world heritage site, built in the 12th century, and it is
Though there are many incredible places to visit in Cambodia, when most people visit Cambodia, they visit Siem Reap to see the Angkor Wat Temple Complex, the largest religious complex in the world. Angkor Wat is a world heritage site, built in the 12th century, and it is